The Best Fried Chicken You're Not Making

Picture a dish that’s breaded, fried, and made of chicken. No, it’s not a greasy, red bucket of KFC. It’s chicken schnitzel, and it’s a pity you’re not eating it right now.

Schnitzel, a dish of Austrian extraction, is a flattened piece of tenderized meat coated in flour, dipped in beaten eggs, covered in breadcrumbs, and finally pan-fried in oil. These days, one can make schnitzel using nearly any protein, but Wiener schnitzel—a breaded cutlet of pounded veal—has been popular in Austria for decades.

If schnitzel sounds curiously similar to the Italian preparation Milanese, you’re onto something. Wiener schnitzel is said to have meandered to Austria from Italy, thanks to the Austrian Field Marshal Count Joseph Radetzky, who brought the recipe over in 1857.

After European immigrants introduced the dish to Israel in the 20th century, chicken schnitzel has since become a popular street food there. Many restaurants toss sesame seeds and paprika into the chicken’s breading, and stack the cutlets in pita sandwiches piled high with Israeli cucumber-and-tomato salad, hummus, hot sauce, tahini, and—just for good measure—a generous heap of French fries.

Here’s an adapted recipe from Israel’s oldest newspaper, Haaretz, which credits it to Tel Aviv’s Café Noir. (Sans sesame seeds, but feel free to add some if you like.) The next time you get a hankering for fried chicken, skip the bucket and try this instead.